Gamescom: Why I Believe in Prototype 2

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There's a reason for ripping people in half with tendrils, and it rocks.

By Greg Miller

Ask me in passing, and I'd tell you the original Prototype sucked. Do I mean Prototype rates a 2.5 on the IGN review scale? Of course not. I mean I started it, enjoyed the opening, but burned out. It felt like I massacred monsters and ate innocent civilians, only to turn around and have totally normal conversations with my in-game sister. With each mission, my actions and the story disconnected exponentially, so I bailed and wrote Prototype off as a missed opportunity.

Jump ahead three years, and Prototype 2 is one of my most anticipated games of next year. Developer Radical Entertainment has shown me the game three times -- most recently the Gamescom build -- and I can't wait to get a copy of my own, sit down in a dark room, and run wild in a zombified New York City.

But why the excitement for a franchise I walked away from? On the surface, not much has changed. Once again, you masquerade as a character capable of uppercutting helicopters, flying across the world and absorbing people in a third-person adventure. Once again, New York is in the grips of a horrible virus turning inhabitants into monsters, filling the streets with hulking beasts.

Prototype 2 separates itself via its story -- Sgt. James Heller's tale is one of heartbreak, anger and revenge. Have you seen Prototype 2'sComic-Con trailer? It's all you need to know about Heller's motivation. He trusted Blackwatch (the armed goons roaming the streets of New York City), and because of their advice, urged his wife and daughter to stay put in their home. That choice sucked -- chaos found and killed Heller's family. He told them to stay, and they died because of it. In a blinded rage, he went to kill Alex Mercer -- the protagonist of the first game and the man responsible for releasing the virus -- but Mercer gave Heller powers of his own. Now, Heller has the power to tear Blackwatch down from the inside and finish Mercer off once and for all.

I'm not married and I have no children, but I still tear up when Heller's daughter says, "I miss you daddy," at the end of the trailer. In less than two minutes, I'm in Heller's boots and ready to beat the hell out of anything walking the streets. The mere framework of his story connects with me and makes me want revenge as much as he does.

Don't mess with a man's family.

I could never say that about the original Prototype. Mercer woke up with no memory and started killing anything and everything. That bored me after a while. Heller's story sets up the bloody, wanton violence of Prototype 2 in a way that makes sense. Whereas Mercer blindly killed one second and then chattedlike a normal dude the next, Heller lost everything and you're goddamn right he's going to tear each and every person on the Blackwatch payroll apart with hammerfists and razor fingers.

And unlike Mercer, Heller isn't all action. He can pick up people like Mercer could, but there's an option to put them down. Players don't have to kill innocent civilians just because they accidentally grabbed them. The savages among us can still take people to the top of skyscrapers and toss them to their deaths, but for me, it means I get to become the Heller I imagine. I can take the fight to the bastards that killed my family -- that failed my wife and daughter-- and not just slay every man, woman and child I meet along the way.

I can give Heller's actions meaning, and that puts Prototype 2 head and shoulders above its predecessor.